Titanic

[Bill1978]

I agree with Ben, when dealing with a real event its hard not to plagiarise from a previous film that covers the same event. It's more on an issue when it's a film based on a piece of fictional work. I remember seeing Peter Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring and thinking this scene looks familiar a number of times. The main one was when the hobbits are hiding from the ringwraiths beneath the tree. So when I sat down one weekend to watch the animated version, imagine my surprise to discover why those scenes looked familiar.

[Ben]

Although again, one could say that a book text is as sacrosanct as a true event. If it is well written and descriptive, there are again only so many ways it can be translated to the screen, just as there are only so many ways someone can remake King Kong, for instance. Certain movies, stories or books are so ingrained that there will always be similarities, though sometimes they’ll be confused for ripoffs!

The LOTR is an interesting one, since Jackson admits he saw Bakshi's film when he was younger, but specifically didn’t watch it again in preparation for his version. That said, things will linger in the memory, though again in this case I’d just say it was a very descriptive text that informed both versions!

[ShyViolet]

Completely random/dumb/trivial/probably ridiculous question, but just wondering, after Rose tells her story to the team from the opening, one of the techs says: “We never found anything on Jack. There’s no record of him at all.” Rose replies: “No, there wouldn’t be, would there?”

Wasn’t Jack arrested though, right when the ship was starting to sink, for supposedly stealing the necklace? So technically wouldn’t there have been some documentation from that? (There was already documentation about the hat/coat that Jack had “borrowed.”).

So….unless those documents were completely destroyed (and that’s very possible) wouldn’t there technically be SOME trace of info of Jack being on the Titanic? (He might have also appeared in one of the many photographs that were taken right when the ship was pulling out in London and he and Fabrizio were waving at everyone.).

I mean if Bill Paxton and the rest of his team knew EVERY POSSIBLE HISTORICAL DETAIL about the necklace, wouldn’t they have found the documentation that detailed how someone had apparently tried to steal it?

The arrest:


https://youtu.be/NUwX2mxY2gc


Leaving port:


https://youtu.be/870sppfP9DY



EDIT: Someone in the comments section of the arrest vid pointed out that Jack actually was arrested TWICE in the film: once for the necklace and then for supposedly trying to attack Rose. I hadn’t even thought of that! So there would probably documentation from that too, especially since both Rose and Cal were very much First Class passengers.

[Ben]

If there *was* any documentation, it would have been writing on paper (if any such report even made it as far as actually being filed), which the ink would have dissolved and the paper disintegrated in the water. If Jack was in any images, how would anyone know what he looked like so as to identify him in any of them?

[ShyViolet]

Yeah…that’s true. I thought maybe the docs could survive in a locked drawer/safe like the painting had (although it just barely survived.). But yeah, paper’s not so strong against water, true.

[Randall]

I doubt that documentation of theft would end up in a vault. More likely it was just lying around in a pile or filing cabinet.

Wow, it's 2021, and people are still posting in the Titanic thread!

[Ben]

*If* a report even got filed!

And, yeah, Titanic's still relevant: Jen just asked last night if we could run it again soon sometime. I might even break out the 3D glasses and give that version a go!

[Randall]

I need to do the same!

[Dan]

Earlier this year during my Criterion blu ray tour (which I've got paused at the moment for obvious reasons), I watched A Night to Remember and then put on Titanic like a day or two after. It's quite interesting comparing the two.

[Ben]

What’s a Criterion Blu-ray tour? That sounds cool and fun!

See also the 1929 Atlantic — actually Britain's first true full Talkie — which has a strange authenticity about it even if the acting is sometimes as stiff as the planks that make up the ship's floor, and the 1940s German film, Titanic, which is a propagandist take that’s not actually quite chock-a-block full of propaganda as you might think or first appears, as well as the 1950s Fox soap-opera version, which also has interesting comparisons to Cameron's '97 film. There are others, too, of course — SOS Titanic in the 70s being worth a mention but I’m not sure worth the time to watch! — but those are the main pre-'97 films. A Night To Remember, despite the now factual errors, is still impressive, and of course even the Cameron film had errors in it at the time, and still a few more found since it’s production and further investigation of the ship itself. Winsor McCay's Sinking Of The Lusitania from 1918 also has some unmistakably impressive shots that you can see influenced Cameron's film as well. They’re all good in various ways, in my opinion, as a bit of a Titanic nut.

[droosan]

HaircutPractice_2020-02-25.gif (102.81 KiB) Viewed 11176 times

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This is from Haircut Practice .. an unabashed Peanuts 'tribute' strip which I've enjoyed for the past year.

The musician kid is obsessed with Alec Guiness, rather than Beethoven .. which -- as it turns out -- is no less weird, as a running gag.

[EricJ]

Ftr, Guinness (and John Barry's musical cue) is the most appealing thing for the first two hours of the movie:

(...Yes, I've always found fact more interesting than hipsterism. )

As for the ending, however, look up "Anticlimax" in the dictionary.

[Dacey]

Somehow a film that involves cold war spies trying to race to find weapons secrets hidden on the Titanic is...boring as all heck.

I mean, you would expect it to be bonkers, but no. Boring. As. Heck.

[Ben]

It’s a Dirk Pitt "adventure"…*without* the "adventure"!!

Even Barry's score (er…cue? Not sure if that was supposed to be a joke) is lethargic as hell…the film would probably feel half the length if it was a little more energetic and had a few more actual themes in it.

[Daniel]

From the company who brought you Titanic II:



Looks horrible... can't wait to watch! Ghostberg, dead ahead! The delivery of "Oh my god look at this ship" is priceless. Even has a discount Dwayne Johnson! This will surely be a sinker.